Space Crowdfunding: What’s the Secret?, Winners and losers among the space start-ups, Air and Space
“I had guys clambering over the [radio antenna] dish in Arecibo [Puerto Rico], hanging hardware while people were still giving money, and people were saying, ‘This is great!’ ” he says. “I was live-tweeting everything we did. Every geeky expression that happened in the control room I threw out there, and people were telling me they got in trouble for not going to work, or skipping class, sitting on the subway reading it on their phone.” “The bulk of the people that give you money don’t quite even understand exactly what you’re going to do,” says Cowing. But success comes “if you tell a compelling story, couch this in a way that there’s adventure involved, but also a payback opportunity that people feel is important, that there’s something to be learned.”